Sunday, May 22, 2005

The first time my husband heard about it (more than a year ago) he exclaimed, "That's it! That's exactly how I feel."

It's difficult for most people who have RLS to accurately describe it, and as a result most people are misdiagnosed and/or told it's "all in your head."

In medical fields the term RLS stands for Restless Legs Syndrome and according to a recent Yahoo! News article, as many as 8% of Americans suffer from it to some degree.

As the name suggests, RLS give sufferers a strong compulsion to move their legs. It's not always painful, but it is uncomfortable.

Patients describe the sensation as a pulling, tingling or buzzing feeling in the legs. Some say it feels like bugs are crawling on their legs. This usually happens during the early evening or at night.

Most sufferers are middle-aged and older, though RLS does occur in young people. Pregnant women also seem to get it. Women are slightly more likely to get it than men.

If the attacks are infrequent, they're a nuisance. When people get RLS severely, it can impair sleep.

Now the reason I say you'll be hearing a LOT more about this in future is because...

For starters, this is something that appears to affect most people later in life and from what I hear the drug companies are already rubbing their hands together in anticipation of being able to sell even more of their existing drugs to the Baby Boomer market approaching the later years in their lives.

In fact, the Yahoo! article mentioned above talks about one such company who received recent FDA approval for one of their drugs originally approved for Parkinsons, but now approved for RLS as well.

And it was hinted in the article that several other drug companies are taking stock of their existing inventories to see which of their products will work best so they can rush them through the approval process, too.

Is it the "greed" factor rearing its ugly head? Or do they really care about us? Or maybe I'm just a bit too cynical? The answers to these questions are better left for another time and place.

The news article was passed on to me by --- you guessed it --- my husband, with a note attached: "I haven't felt it in over a year now, thanks to..."

I won't fill in the blank of what helped him. The FDA probably wouldn't approve, since it is an all natural solution that worked for him, and may not necessarily work for the masses ...plus, no clinical studies have been confirmed that it works specifically for this purpose. It was a REAL BONUS for him, and for me... now BOTH of us are getting good sleep!

However, if you're really curious you can always contact us and ask for the full details. We'll be happy to share.